Sophocles

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus: a New Translation for Today's Audiences and Readers (Ancient Greek Theater Today)

This new translation of Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus (or Oedipus Rex, Oedipus the King)- perhaps the best known of all Ancient Greek tragedies- is meant to satisfy several parameters: (i) above all, to provide a text that can be immediately and easily understood and appreciated by a 21st century, English-speaking audience or reader, (ii) in so doing to remain as faithful to the text and the spirit of the text as is possible, and (iii) neither to promote nor exclude flexibility in staging, choreography, and interpretation. The translator realizes that this is a task that is by its very nature impossible to perfect, and that usually the quality of any attempt is very much in the eye of the beholder. However, he strongly believes that there is an identifiable gap in affordable translations of Ancient Greek Theater, between those efforts that are virtually incomprehensible as a result of their antiquated vocabulary, awkward syntax, opaque idiom, and/or overwrought poetry, and those that take such liberty with the underlying text as to bear little relationship to the spirit of the original.